Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Colorado: Denver & Colorado Springs

Friday after Kenan's final session we checked out of the Villas, bid adieu to Estes Park and headed towards Denver. Our first stop was Fancy Tiger, which Kenan had located before our trip and we both decided we had to go, it's a yarn and fabric store and packed full of goodies. I bought a hank of Pico Accuardi sock yarn, hand-dyed in Portland, OR and some Spud & Chloe yarn for a new project for my yet-to-be-born-nephew. I didn't buy any fabric but now I wish I had, they had an excellent selection fabric, from Japanese prints to Anna Maria Horner. After that we got a snack at the bar next door and then went to the Great Western Alpaca Show which just happened to be going on that weekend.

Neither of us had ever seen a real-live alpaca, even though we had both knitted with it. OMG it was an explosion of cuteness! I'm about 100% positive the alpaca people thought we were insane because we were practically swooning over the alpaca. Seriously. The alpaca show was in the arena and then the stalls where the alpaca were staying were off away from the arena. If the alpaca gazing wasn't enough, there was also a yarn sale with lots of local, hand-dyed, alpaca and alpaca blend yarns being sold. After emptying our wallets we got a little up close and personal with some alpacas. Kenan even got in a stall with a few. The alpaca owners were so nice, several people talked to us about raising them and let us stare all googly-eyed at their alpaca.

It was hard to tear ourselves away but we got hungry and left so we could have dinner at Steuben's. It was cold but their patio was heated so we ate outside (shorter wait). We both had the chicken pot pie and a cocktail, I had a Singapore Sling and I think Kenan's was a Sidecar, the food and the beverages were great. For dessert we went to The Shoppe and had tiny cupcakes again, this time Nutella, Raspberry Vanilla and Irish Cream, which was my personal favorite, the icing was dynamite.Saturday we made our final yarn shop stop at The Lamb Shoppe, where I bought a hank of Colorado alpaca and Kenan got yarn that's a blend of wool and POSSUM, which is surprisingly soft and a nice neutral color. Although we can't help but wonder how they get the hair off of the possum....

The highlight of Saturday was taking the Pike's Peak Cog Railway. The wind was too strong for us to go to the summit but we still got some amazing views. Props to Kenan for not throwing me out the window of the rail-car. I started feeling kind of icky and I was worried about my grandmother so I was a little grouchy.

We were flying out on Sunday so we got up early and visited Garden of the Gods, which was my favorite things we did, just because the landscape was unbelievable. By the time we headed to the airport a storm had set in and it was snowing and I saw some lighting, which did not bode well for my flying-phobia. But we made it home just fine with new piles of yarn and bellies full of cupcakes and eclairs and marionberry pie and more cupcakes....